GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In the last week, gas prices around West Michigan have been lower. However, waking up Tuesday it seemed the prices shot up overnight.
13 ON YOUR SIDE spoke with an expert to talk about the sudden jump and what may have caused it as prices went from around $2.71 to $3.39. Patrick Dehaan, a Gas Buddy analyst, said the prices hikes are a "reset."
"This is one of the infamous price cycles that we tend to see every couple of weeks," said Dehaan.
"Stations, especially in Grand Haven, had got down to, in some cases, to 2.71 a gallon. When you start to see more of those ultra-low prices, that's kind of when you know stations are getting a little bit ahead of themselves lowering prices so quickly that they now have run out of margin."
The average price for gas, according to Gas Buddy, is currently just over $3 a gallon.
"It was those ultra low prices that caused everyone to reset prices up to $3.39 now, $3.39 is a little high, it's a little tough to warrant that," said Dehaan.
If you're hoping the prices will drop again, you're in luck. Dehaan said he doesn't expect this price hike to last much longer.
"Try to avoid those three-thirty-nines," said Dehaan. "Where we go from here is even the stations that are three-thirty-nine should start to pretty quickly roll back. This is the downward part of the cycle. It should last one or two weeks that prices slowly drop. We'll probably get back down to below three dollars a gallon at many stations. So just wait. "